“Sleuth”

Richmond Gateway Theatre
6500 Gilbert Road,
Richmond, B.C.
Greater Vancouver, BC

By Anthony Shaffer
Directed by John Cooper

January 29-14, 2004
Reviewed January 30, 2004

“INGENIOUS SKULDUGGERY, SUSPENSE.” NY Post

Mystery writer Andrew Wyke has made a career of murder. Ensconced in a cozy English country house, surrounded by dominoes and chessboards, Andrew considers himself a master of games. Then he starts playing with people instead of chess pieces, pitting his intellect against the brash appeal of his wife's young lover in a deadly game of cat and mouse. But who is the predator and who is the victim? The world's greatest thriller, where nothing is quite what it seems...

We’ll spare you their names, so they can go on to better roles without being tainted. The script was painfully dull.

Reviewed by: Caesi Bevis and Karolina Figarski

This will probably be one of the shorter reviews we ever find we write. We are two very different people: one middle aged, ex-Thespian-turned costumer, professional reviewer, the other a UBC graduating twenty something theatre student and writer. We both thought the show failed the audience. It’s a given the show is dull when at intermission you are describing to each other, other shows that you just loved and why, or you a wristwatch watching from about fifteen minutes after it starts - and through to the end. It’s the script; the acting at least was average. The script was dull, dull, and dull…

Awesome set - mind games will the gorgeous 1930s English cottage home set, such as an interesting chess board, backgammon, Parcheesi, cards, an interesting tiered- pyramid wood structure game sitting on a table top (what was it?) and another they described as from ancient Egypt, and a pool table. We probably missed a few others. The rest of the set was stunning with the fireplace, Grandfather clock, aquarium (poor fish!) and a wood-twirling stairwell. This set was certainly as stunning as its “King and I” set, and for different reasons.

Worst set mistake: an elk or deer head mounted on a wall and a real bearskin rug with the head. We were hoping it was attached. It looked like it was - and they had the common sense to not have the head facing the audience…until the main character kicks the head off of the bear and it is now facing the audience for about the last 20 minutes of the show! Past upsetting, this hit a new level of insensitivity for animal lovers in the audience.

The show centers on an English detective storywriter who has the interest to live out one of his mysteries by killing his wife’s lover who wants to marry her. It’s the old traditional game of cat and mouse. Two men carry off the entire play, from 8pm to 10:15pm. The mystery - comedy, struggles hard for laughs. None of the lines are memorable even a few minutes later.

We struggling to find something we liked about the show. Karolina thought maybe the fish tank represented a fourth wall, or dimension, but then decided since the main character was positioned too close to it at points, that “wasn’t it”. Caesi was finding it irritatingly interesting that the main character kept referring to that in “his” opinion, only snobs read English detective stories in the 1930s, so they could stay in their world of other high-class snobs. Grrrr…her much beloved (and deceased) mother loved English detective stories and read many, and although from a higher-class family, she was hardly a snob. This point just didn’t make sense - especially to keep being emphasized over and over and over. It meant nothing to the storyline.

At one point the lover is supposed to be the detective, but incognito…where the audience is really supposed to find out later and be shocked they are one and the same. Except it doesn’t work as the man who plays the role has such a strong unique square jaw line, and distinctive eyes, he can’t pull it off. The Sherlock Holmes hat pulled a third of the way down his face is also a dead give away.

For those who don’t like the sound of gun shots there are four in the show.

Recommendation: Wait for the next Gateway show. This one is predictable with a dull script where you don’t care how it ends. The acting is average. To us, a show that stars only two men, when the community has such great talent to showcase, is just a poor script choice to do. It’s also more boring for the audience to have fewer characters on which to focus. Do an hour show, maybe, but leave the two plus hour scripts to more people…or find a more interesting script.

The set is the star. For anyone who loves fish and knows they don’t like temperature changes or to be moved around a lot, it’s hard to think that the fish will be going through both, night after night. Maybe this pales in comparison to the dead bear and elk.